Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
where the hell does it say private property, huh? This is not a scruffy boat; your tired dock
is scruffy!”
He continued to wave his arms wildly and yelled, his face quite purple, “Get this bloody
boat out of here before I shoot you! This is private property, and you have no right being
here!”
It was clear he was a manservant or side kick to a wealthy celebrity, but his attitude was
appalling and definitely not suited to working with the public. As we pulled away from the
dock and the gap grew wider, this man's language grew stronger, and he cursed us and sail-
ors like us; he even went so far as to suggest what we could do with our mother. I yelled
back what we would do to his sisters, and he fairly danced with rage. After the shock of
this incident, we laughed about it for days, mimicking him and dancing around shaking our
fists and saying, “Get orff this blerry dawk, can't you see this is prrrivate property!”
We made our way to Virgin Gorda Island and noticed a strip of roadstead that had several
yachts swinging to their anchors, including a really lovely, old, clipper type vessel that must
have been almost eighty-five feet long or thereabouts, called the “Lady Ellen.”
We dropped anchor in an opening and went ashore. There were a few little stores and a
fancy hotel as well as an inviting bar which we would visit at happy hour. I decided to lay
out on the beach and soak up some sun. Gavin went back to do some laundry on the boat,
and I cringed when later I saw gaily flapping in the breeze on a temporary clothesline all
his washing, looking for all the world like a gypsy boat amongst all the other swans. “The
Reids have definitely arrived,” I chuckled to myself.
Later, we decided to go snorkeling again and took off in different directions. I noticed that
this was called Anaconda Reef on the chart and wondered if we would come up against any
giant snakes, I hoped not! (I wasn't to know that I was about to have a very close shave
with a large shark.)
I took off under the cool, clear, blue water and, as usual, delighted in the quiet, private, un-
derwater world of the diver. It really was world-renowned diving in these waters: crystal
clear, warm water and the ocean bed an easy-on-the-eye yellow sandy bottom, littered with
large and small ancient coral heads thousands of years in the making. It was all so colorful.
Millions of organisms piled one on top of the other formed these living monuments. In
several areas where there was no sandy bottom, the reef showed through, exposing some
interesting caves that were inhabited by several varieties of fish.
There were many delightfully colored types of seaweed and plants, and shyly poking about
were schools of exotic fish of different colors and sizes. Bright blue and green parrot
fish abounded. Shy, orangey red squirrel fish darted about, and now and then large brown
